Overview

Spokane International Airport is located in Washington State. The airport is located in Spokane County, which has a population of 417,000. Ranking second in the state, the airport sees more than three million travelers pass through its doors annually. About 290 take-offs and landings occur every day. The abbreviations are GEG and KGEG due to its earlier name, Geiger Field. The airport has two concrete runways. One is 11,000 feet, and the other is 8,000 feet.

History of Spokane International Airport

The airfield was originally known as Sunset Field. It became a military field in 1941, and many B-17 and C-47 pilots were trained there for World War II. In 1946, it became a dual military and commercial airport. In 1960, it was renamed Spokane International Airport. The airport now serves Pend Oreille, Whitman, Lincoln, and Stevens Counties in Washington as well as Bonner, Kootenai and Beneway Counties in Idaho. The airport is open 24/7, but most businesses and airline counters limit their hours of operation.

Airport Amenities

Concourse A and B share the same lobby for ticketing counters and baggage claim. When entering the lobby from the street, ticketing is to the right, and baggage claim is to the left of the Concourse A/B security checkpoint. An automatic banking machine is located in the main lobby. Concourse A includes gates 11 through 15. Concourse B includes gates 1 through 10. There are food and retail choices after the security checkpoint.

The Concourse C lobby has its own ticketing counters and baggage claim carousels. An ATM machine is located in the main lobby of Concourse C. Once you pass through security, you will find C gates 21 through 25 are on your left. Gates 30, 31 and 32 are on the upper level to the right. Most food and retail choices are available after security. If you are an arriving passenger in Concourse C, you may want to make needed food purchases before leaving the secure area.

Concourse C and Concourse A/B are linked by a walkway. You can walk from the C area baggage claim area into Concourse A/B to pick up a flight there. To reach Concourse C from A/B, you will walk past the ticketing counters toward the C lobby. Car rental counters are at the end of the oblong A/B lobby. Two pedestrian bridges connect the adjacent parking garages to the Concourse A/B lobby.

Parking at the Airport

Drivers who are picking up arriving passengers may wait in a cell phone lot on airport drive. In addition, there are three metered lots that allow short term use for dropping off or picking up family or friends. Arriving passengers can be picked up curbside. Departing passengers may be dropped off by their flight terminal. Skycaps are available to help passengers with heavy luggage.

With more than 5,000 parking spaces on the premises, the airport generally has spaces available. The airport lots are well-lit at night and are patrolled by airport security. The outermost parking is the North Shuttle Lot, which is the least costly and includes a shuttle to the airport terminal. There are two hotels on the airport grounds, and these have their own parking lots and shuttles. There is a C Concourse surface lot, but the two large parking garages adjacent to A/B can also be used by Concourse C travelers. In addition, there is a very large long term parking lot adjacent to the garages.

Airlines Serving Spokane Airport

Regional airline Horizon Air and national carrier Southwest Airlines consistently are the top two busiest airlines at Spokane International Airport. Horizon Air garners 27.97% of the airport’s passenger market, while Southwest Airlines holds 27.78% of the market. Horizon Air transported 820,000 passengers from 2011 to 2012. Through an agreement with its sister airline, Alaska Air, Horizon operates flights to the airport’s first and fourth most popular destinations: Seattle and Portland, Ore., respectively. Horizon passengers embark at Spokane’s Concourse C.

Delta Airlines’ non-stop flights to Minneapolis/St. Paul and Salt Lake City account for more than 13 percent of the airport’s passenger business. Its 390,000 annual passengers embark at Concourse B. Salt Lake City is Spokane’s third most popular route, and the Minneapolis/St. Paul route is the airport’s 5th most popular destination.

Alaska Air transports 211,000 passengers through Spokane’s airport each year. Its fourth place rank accounts for seven percent of the airport’s passenger market. The airline offers daily non-stop flights to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, using Concourse C. Together with its sister airline, Horizon Air, the two airlines transport nearly half a million passengers to Seattle-Tacoma annually.

Frontier Air is the 5th busiest airline at Spokane, with 183,000 passengers each year. The airline operates daily non-stop flights to Denver from the airport’s Concourse C.

More than half a million passengers at Spokane International Airport use other national and regional airlines such as United Airlines and United Express, both flying non-stop to Denver and San Francisco. As the Spokane area grows in population, airport officials expect additional routes and airlines to be added to their schedule, such as Allegiant Air’s new weekly non-stop flights to Honolulu.